Made in Idaho: Local game designers test their toys at Boise game store

Local game designers are going back to the basics and ditching high tech toys for old fashioned cardboard and dice.

BOISE, Idaho - At All About Games on Overland Road in Boise, board and card games thrive. They're not playing Monopoly or Yahtzee, but games that aren't even out yet. Games the players have spent years making.

"At times it's been frustrating cause it hasn't made the progress that I was hoping it would but more often then not it's been really really fun," said game designer Kevin Gordon.

Kevin has spent the last three years tweaking his game "Radical 80's arcade." In the game, you assign workers to run an arcade and need to make business decisions to attract customers and keep them happy to win points. For Kevin these "Prototype Game Nights" let him know what's working and what's not.

"Every time you play it there is a whole bunch of things that have to change, and so it takes a very long time, it takes a lot of playtesting, a lot of different people willing to play the game to get it to the point it needs to be at," said Gordon.

And that's precisely the type of culture the owner of the store wants. Ken Somerville has helped connect game developers with publishes in the past. It's his dream to see locally made games on his store shelves.

"I do what I can to help get local games, local talent get published," explained Ken Somerville co-owner of All About Games.

Kevin says "Radical 80's Arcade" is being considered by an independent publisher thanks to Prototype Game Nights. While he doesn't expect to be the next Monopoly man, he hopes to see his dream come true.

"I told my wife if this thing gets published and I make zero cents off of it for me that's still job well-done, mission accomplished," said Gordon. "I just want to see this thing published, that would be awesome for me."

Organizers plan to hold the next prototype game night on Saturday, June 2nd.

Copyright 2018 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.